$300 Million Silicon Valley Crypto Fund Debuts

Even with cryptocurrency market cap leader Bitcoin down by about 70 percent from its high in late December, it isn’t stopping Andreessen Horowitz, a prominent Silicon Valley venture capital firm known for its profitable technology investments, from diving deeper into cryptocurrencies with a $300 million fund.

The firm has a successful track record with investing in tech start-ups, such as cloud computing company Okta and transportation company Lyft. In addition, it won’t be Andreessen Horowitz’s first foray into cryptocurrencies as it has invested capital with digital currency exchange Coinbase and blockchain start-up OpenBazaar.

Related: Blockchain Start-Up Garners Interest Despite Crypto Bear Market

The fund, named “a16zcrypto,” will focus its investments on cryptocurrency companies, coins, tokens, and protocols with a long-term horizon.

“We’ve been investing in crypto assets for 5+ years,” Andreessen Horowitz general partner Chris Dixon said in a blog post. “We’ve never sold any of those investments, and don’t plan to any time soon. We structured the a16z crypto fund to be able to hold investments for 10+ years.”

The news comes at a time when Bitcoin’s price crept below $6,000 over the weekend and is down over 56 percent year-to-date.